The James C. Kautz Lecture Series

The James C. Kautz Lecture Series welcomes internationally-recognized economists for a full day of engagement at the University of Cincinnati.

2018

Our changing lives: Work, family, and policy in a time of rising gender equality, Professor Betsey Stevenson, PhD, University of Michigan

This talk explores how economics can help us understand how the motivation for families and the behavior within families has changed over the past several decades, how our jobs and work life have changed, and the interactions between changes in the family and the workplace. Public policy has helped to facilitate those changes by reducing workplace discrimination, increasing educational opportunities for women, and changing the laws surrounding divorce. However, other public policy decisions—such as a lack of paid parental leave—have limited those changes.

2017

Inequality, Life Chances, and Public Policy: How to Slide Down the Great Gatsby Curve, Professor Miles Corak, PhD, University of Ottawa

We should care about inequality because it has the potential to shape opportunities for the next generation. This presentation offers a framework for thinking about this relationship, and for understanding why the adult outcomes of children are more closely tied to their family background—with the poor raising the next generation of poor adults, and the rich more likely to see their children to be rich in adulthood—in countries with greater inequality. Differences in families, labor markets, and public policy all play a role in understanding why the United States has relatively less social mobility than many other countries.

2016

Paul Polman actively seeks cooperation with other companies to implement sustainable business strategies and drive systemic change. He is Chairman of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, a member of the International Business Council of the World Economic Forum, a member of the B Team and sits on the Board of the UN Global Compact and the Consumer Goods Forum, where he co-chairs the Sustainability Committee.

Paul has been closely involved in global discussions on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and action to tackle climate change. In 2016, Paul was asked by the UN Secretary-General to be a member of the SDG Advocacy Group, tasked with promoting action on the 2030 Agenda.

2015

Income and Happiness, Justin Wolfers, PhD, Professor of Economics and Public Policy at the University of Michigan

Professor Wolfers provided an economist's perspective on happiness, bringing together data from millions of surveys conducted in dozens of years, over several decades. While earlier researchers had suggested that income and happiness were not closely linked, Professor Wolfers showed that economic factors exerted a powerful force on happiness, both here and around the world.

2014

Triumph of the City, Ed Glaeser, PhD, The Fred and Eleanor Glimp Professor of Economics at Harvard University

Ed Glaeser is the Fred and Eleanor Glimp Professor of Economics at Harvard, where he also serves as Director of the Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston. He studies the economics of cities, and has written about urban issues, including the growth of cities, segregation, crime and housing markets. He has been particularly interested in the role that geographic proximity can play in creating knowledge and innovation. He received his PhD from the University of Chicago in 1992 and has been at Harvard ever since.

Past speakers in the James C. Kautz Lecture Series include Nobel Laureates Finn Kydland, Edward Prescott, and Paul Krugman.